The Coral Sea for Soprano Saxophone and Piano

From the Publisher

The Coral Sea takes its title (and structure) from the prose poem of the same name that Patti Smith wrote as a memorial to the great photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who died in 1989. (The Coral Sea is also the title of one of Mapplethorpe's most striking, and (for him) unusual photographs - of a battleship.) The piece's seventeen sections follow Patti Smith's division into a Prologue, for piano alone, Voyage, a series of contrasting episodes, and after a fierce climax, a final Litany which begins with a monody for unaccompanied saxophone.

The Coral Sea was commissioned by Group AG and was first performed by Martin Robertson and Antony Gray at Tate Britain on January 15th 1998.
Copyright Gabriel Jackson

Performance duration (approx): 17'00

Item Details

Instrumentation

• Part 1: Soprano Saxophone
• Part 2: Piano